Goa Police ‘lose track’ of 366 foreigners who jumped bail since 2015

The Goa Police has misplaced observe of 366 foreigners who had been enlarged on bail between 2015 and the primary half of 2020, in accordance with information collated by the state house division and submitted within the High Court.

The foreigners who’ve principally been arrested beneath sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have been launched on bail usually with the situation that they report back to the police station frequently or hold the native police station knowledgeable about any journeys exterior the state or nation.

The absconding foreigners make up 90% of overseas nationals who had been enlarged on bail pending trial and have fled the nation or in any other case made themselves scarce and never out there to face prosecution. A bulk of them are from the North Goa district.

The Superintendent of Police (North) has revealed to the courtroom that the police in his jurisdiction misplaced observe of 32 overseas nationals in 2015, 40 in 2016, 65 in 2017, 87 in 2018, 59 in 2019 and 22 as much as August 31 this yr.

The Anti-Narcotics Bureau of the Goa Police stated it misplaced observe of three undertrials in 2015, 5 in 2016, eight in 2017, 9 in 2019 and eight in 2019.

The Superintendent of Police (South) stated he misplaced observe of 16 foreigners throughout the identical interval whereas the Crime Branch stated they’d no observe of 20 such foreigners dealing with trial since 2015.

“It is evident that in almost 90% of the cases where the foreigners have been enlarged on bail, their present whereabouts are unknown meaning thereby, that in all probabilities such foreigners have fled the country or otherwise not available to face the prosecution,” the Bombay High Court at Goa division bench of Justices M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar stated.

These foreigners are primarily Nigerians but in addition embody Kenyans, Tanzanians, Ghanaians, Israelis and Russians.

“If the concerned police officials were to realise that the foreigners are not attending the police stations and marking their attendance, the least that was expected was to move the courts for cancellation of bail. Besides, the police officials were required to immediately swing into action and trace such foreigners, before they succeed in fleeing from justice,” the High Court stated.

“From the statistics furnished, at least prima facie impression is created that the police agencies have treated this matter absolutely casually. We reiterate that if this continues, then, the administration of criminal justice in this State will be very seriously affected,” the judges famous.

The High Court was initially listening to an enchantment filed by the State towards the acquittal of 1 Pavel Neuhausel, a Czech nationwide who was arrested on fees of murdering his companion Marketa Horka in 2013. After his preliminary acquittal by the trial courtroom of the homicide, Neuhausel was enlarged on bail whereas the state challenged the acquittal within the High Court.

However, throughout the listening to of the acquittal it got here to gentle that Neuhausel had fled the nation.

Back in 2013 Neuhausel was present in an unconscious state alongside the railway tracks at Cansa Tivim in North Goa and instructed the police that he was kidnapped, assaulted and dumped by the railway line. When the police broke into his room on the visitor home the place he was staying, they discovered his murdered companion mendacity in a pool of blood. He was arrested for the homicide.

“We found that the police agencies were not at all serious, either in apprehending the accused or even in fixing any responsibility upon the police officials who were responsible for the accused jumping the bail and fleeing the country,” the High Court noticed.

“This is a serious issue affecting the administration of criminal justice. If this continues, then, it will have a very serious effect upon the administration of criminal justice in the State of Goa,” the High Court stated.

No one within the authorities was keen to return on file in regards to the courtroom’s observations. But Goa’s Advocate General Devidas Pangam stated the federal government will file a reply in response to the Court’s orders.